Dark Catcher
by Vorquellyn
Summary: Darken and Nicci are called to the Fortress With No Name Legend of the Seeker/The Black Company No knowledge of Black Company is necessary. Darken/Soulcatcher, Suvrin/Arkana, Tobo/Shukrat
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: None of this is my property. If you want to use any of my ideas please let me know because I'd be curious to see what you did with them.

The smell was the worst part. Always the stench of death and corruption followed Darken in his dreams. It had been so long since he had remembered a pleasant dream that he barely noticed when the nature of the terrors that stalked his dreams changed.

Being alive, being awake, that was the time for pleasant things. The dreams of fire and ash, of people always burning but not ever dying, that had been his dreamscape for as long as he could remember. Even as a child dead, rotting things had filled his sleep.

At first Darken had chalked up the differences to the Keeper's anger at his escape. After making himself at home in Walter's body, the dreams had cooled. The green fires faded away to be replaced by bitter cold. One night he became aware that the Keeper was no longer himself. He had been replaced by a four-armed giantess wearing a belt of severed penises and baby skulls. She stamped and danced while Darken his in icy piles of bones so old and brittle that a touch turned them to powder.

One night he fled the stamping monster to a cavern of ice. Men still as death but still horribly alive watched him as he wandered past. He had enough presence of mind to wonder about that. There were places the Keeper had that looked much like this but these men didn't just feel alive they were alive. The souls of the dead never radiated such madness and menace as these unspeakably ancient creatures did.

Many nights later, he encountered the first sign of true life. A white crow tilted its head to look at him through one red eye and spoke.

Nicci watched warily as Darken Rahl stomped around the encampment, yelling at his Mord'Sith. The search for a quillian had gone badly so far. Nicci knew he planned to remove her powers and take them for himself. She knew he was frustrated that he had not yet been able to do that. Every day that he was thwarted, Darken grew a little stranger and a little crankier.

"Today we go east." Darken said simply whenever anyone asked.

The Temple at Kadilyn was silhouetted starkly against the darkening sky. It was the last Mord'Sith temple to the east. Darken had driven them hard to reach it. Even the Mord'Sith were showing signs of discomfort and fatigue. Nicci who wasn't used to traveling such distances without magic was practically dead on her feet.

"We will need food and water for many days. Maybe weeks. We can slaughter animals along the way. But we need to feed them until then. We can't short them on water or they will break free and get us killed looking for it." Darken muttered to Mareka.

"My Lord, no one has entered the plain in generations. Not since D'Hara's founding has anyone attempted it. The barrier repels us." Mareka said quietly. The light of the setting sun picked out red highlights in her blonde braid.

"I have a solution for that," Darken smiled, a manic light in his eyes. "It isn't a barrier, Mistress Mareka. It's a gate. Gates have keys." He gestured at the pass defended by Kadilyn. Its steep sides held no fertile soil so there were few people in the area. "We go through there and in a week we will reach the gate."

"My sisters and I will need to rest awhile in order to be up to protecting you." Mareka said carefully.

"If we get into a situation where I need protecting it will be too late for us all," Darken said without a trace of worry. "Still, we can rest here for five days before continuing down the pass."

Darken climbed down into the lowest basements of the Mord'Sith temple. Unerringly, he searched through the remains of stone walls that had been old when D'Hara was young until he found a gleaming statue six inches high made from obsidian. The figure had four arms and was naked except for a delicately carved belt decorated with baby skulls. Her fangs glinted softly in the candlelight. It was far heavier than it had any right to be.

Darken held it close to his chest and sighed.

Darken's dream self wandered past men in cocoons of ice but he no longer felt the cold. He followed the albino crow deeper into the caverns, refusing to be intimidated by rank after rank of men who ought to have died ages ago. After a small eternity, he found himself beside a young woman of extraordinary beauty.

Her eyes were closed but he knew that when they opened they would be a bright blue. Her skin was Nightwalker pale and her hair was the color of a raven's wing. A proper raven unlike the crow flittering about overhead. No breath stirred her chest but he knew ways to fix that. Without words, he was struck by the realization that he had just discovered the crow's purpose.

Around her, Darken sensed a dark aura that drew him in. Even in death, this woman was deadly and lovely and... to be loved. He tried to hide the recoil in his thoughts from the crow.

It laughed.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of another woman. This one was just as beautiful but less alluring. The stitches around her neck were garishly out of place. Just as he knew the one laid out on the floor was dead, he knew this one was alive.

Darken Rahl eagerly held the statuette up to the gate. Beyond it, a vast plain of glittering stone stretched as far as he could see. Nothing lived on the plain. Overhead a flock of crows wheeled and circled as he followed the road away from the world he knew and towards a world where he was offered power and escape from his enemies.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine. All belongs to Glen Cook, Sam Raimi, and whoever else owns Legend of the Seeker.

Nicci hated the plain. It was cold and depressing. Her fingers stiffened after only a few minutes and her nose ran constantly. The changeable sky didn't improve her mood any. One minutes it would a clear day with the sun shining down cold, crisp and clear. The next sleet would pour from the sky in stinging gusts.

By the third day, Nicci's eyes and nose were red and so swollen she was having trouble seeing the road. As another gust of wind came from nowhere, Nicci ducked behind the broad back of an ox. Without her Han, she felt vulnerable in a way that made her colder than the weather. The humiliation had warmed her until she'd reached the plain. Nothing warmed her there.

Darken's feet were numb. When he thought about it, he realized his hands were too. He didn't think much past the call of the road. His fingers were clenched around the black statue so tightly that whenever he let go they cramped. As long as he held the statue, his energy was endless. He had to concentrate not to race ahead of his people. Running in his veins was the desire to follow the road to the center. It burned in his muscles and clouded his mind.

At night, he would put down the statue to eat and the exhaustion would flood through him. His body would burn and ache with pressure. His vision would get blurry with fatigue. All of that he could ignore. The dreams were impossible to shut out.

In sleep, his spirit drifted from his body in a sensation that was eerily familiar. Most nights he watched the sky as it changed overhead; constellation to constellation, clear to cloudy, constellation to rain. Sometimes one of the plinths beside the roads and campgrounds caught his attention. The plinths and the statue were made from a black stone that Darken had at first assumed was obsidian. Golden letters moved in obscure, unreadable patterns that Darken knew meant something.

_It's immortality of a sort._

The fortress loomed in front of them. Its bleak stone structure was built on a scale that reminded them all of the People's Palace. Darken paused for a moment as a white crow circled the bleak building.

Nicci took a moment to register the size of the fortress. She squawked when the crow landed on her shoulder and sat there as tamely as any pet, its claws digging in.

"Sister, sister," the crow said and laughed.

"We'll be safe inside," Darken rasped, one thumb rubbing the stone breasts of the statue. He plodded up the road into the fortress, ignoring the Mord'Sith as they glanced at one another and got the remaining goats and cow moving.

Nicci found enough curiosity to move forward faster than the livestock. The place was large and cold but the wind was cut off more thoroughly than any castle or fortress she'd been in, excepting portions of the Margrave's.

At first, the lack of wind was such a relief that she wandered numbly after Darken without thinking. That changed when they reached a chamber a mile across. The sheer scope of the chamber prevented her from initially appreciating the true size of the demon. It had to be at least as big as a house. Even seated it was more than three times her height. Its throne was too large to fit into any but the largest room in the Palace of the Prophets.

His feet stilled as she stared into the demon's yellow eyes. All three of them. Its face was vaguely human shaped except for the third eye located above and between the normal two. Its grey skin reminded her of the rock the fortress was built from. There was no mouth.

The crow flapped upwards and circled the demon once before settling on its left shoulder. The crow turned one beady, red eye on the former Lord of D'Hara and the former Sister of the Dark. It cawed mockingly and rearranged its feathers.

"I brought the materials you requested," Darken murmured, his voice disappearing into the open space.

"Free her," the crow said harshly.

Darken paused for a long beat before mechanically fishing the key out of an inner pocket in his vest. He dully unlocked the Rada'Han. He held on to the collar as Nicci looked around in a daze.

She found herself staring at the floor. In exquisite detail was a map of the plain complete with small dots for the plinths. Slowly, her mind wrapped itself around the idea that she had her Han. With a muttered word, she sent a wind to knock Darken off his feet. "I'm going to kill you slowly."

She was so focused she didn't notice when Mistress Mareka walked up behind her and touched an Agiel to the base of her skull.

Nicci woke up on the way down the stairs. Darken supposed it was a good thing Mistress Mareka knocked Nicci out again but now it meant that the four of them had to wait down in the cold, icy depths of the fortress.

Darken stared up at the icicles hanging from the ceiling of the cavern before moving around to study the bodies. It was clear which one the crow was most interested in. She was the young woman from his dreams. In real life, he noticed that she wasn't how she appeared in his dreams. She was just as young and mind breakingly lovely as she had appeared. If anything, her beauty was more overwhelming in person.

As he knelt, Darken pulled back the sheet that had covered her body. She had been stabbed in the chest no less than two dozen times. Her blue eyes were still open wide in an expression Darken couldn't read. She was roughly Jennsen's height.

Darken stood abruptly and began wandering the chamber, careful not to show too much interest in any of the caverns' living contents. He kept the crow in his peripheral vision and showed the woman with the stitches no more attention than he gave to the blond boy next to them.

Nicci gasped and clawed at the air as she returned to consciousness.

Darken stayed where he was. "You are needed to bring the girl back. You and Mistress Mareka."

"No," Nicci glared mutinously.

"Yes," the crow responded. "Or you stay."

Continuing to glare, Nicci began the rituals to bring the woman's spirit within reach of the Mord'Sith. When she was done, she stood stiffly and glared at the crow. "You aren't that strong. She's too badly injured to-" Nicci stopped as the crow settled on her shoulder and murmured into her ear. Slowly, she began adding more words and the wounds on the woman chest healed. It wasn't a complete healing but the injuries were no longer fatal.

Mistress Mareka gave the young woman the Breath of Life while the crow made a mocking noise and winged its way from the cavern.

The woman sat upright and Darken dropped to his knees. To look up on her was to love her. To love her was to be willing to die for her. She was the world and without her, they would all be lost. Even the blood running down her chest did nothing to diminish her awesome beauty.

Just abruptly, Darken felt himself released. Doing his best not to allow either fear or anger to show as he straightened the cuffs of his robe. "What's your name?"

She stared blankly for a long moment before voicing a string of syllables so strange Darken couldn't tell where the words were supposed to begin and end.

"What do we call you?" Darken added more expression. "Walter," he gestured at himself.

Nicci gave him a look that Darken couldn't meet. Instinct warned him not to use his real name. "Death's Mistress," Nicci gestured at herself.

A different set of syllables issued forth from the young woman.

"Shorter?" Darken held his hands far apart and then closer together.

"Booboo?" The girl said questioningly.

Darken paused thoughtfully, touching his lips. "How about Atia? Atia."

The girl frowned and shivered. She spoke some more and stomped her foot. She looked on the verge of tears.

"Let's get you upstairs," Darken said and turned his back on the gaze of the entranced woman who could have passed for this one's sister. He was certain her eyes had moved.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not mine. No profit made.

Darken slept for what felt like days. He barely woke up when they sent off the Mord'Sith. There wasn't food enough to feed all eight of them for any length of time. The livestock left with the five women, making the fortress even quieter than before.

"We're almost out of food and we're too far from anywhere," Nicci said after kicking Darken in the kidney to wake him up. She glared down at Darken. "You led us here."

"He did," Darken gestured grumpily towards the hulking body on the throne. He was almost awake enough to be angry about that. He scanned the room to find the remaining occupant. Atia was wandering along the edge of the model, staring at her feet. She was in one of her quiet moods for which Darken was thankful. "What do you want?" he demanded, looking back at Nicci.

"You brought me here and you're going to get me home. I'm not going to starve to death on your account," Nicci tapped her foot angrily.

Looking around for the crow, Darken frowned. "Then do something about it and let me sleep."

"I'm telling you-" Nicci grabbed the front of Darken's shirt.

A burst of power threw her across the room. Darken stared down at his hand. He had power. He'd spoken a word and thrown someone as powerful as Nicci. As the realization hit him, he began muttering a defensive spell. Nicci's return swing knocked him down but didn't wind him. He manipulated the energy and sighed as it flowed through him.

Darken had spent so long without a body that he hadn't been able to remember what it was supposed to feel like. Walter's body was a body and therefore wonderful but it wasn't the body of Darken Rahl. Until he experienced relief, Darken hadn't been aware of just how much Walter's body hurt. The damage to Walter's spine, shoulders, and hips had ached for so long that he lost his concentration when they went away.

Nicci's next blow knocked Darken out.

Daughter of Night watched the fight with some interest. She was disappointed when the man lost. Picking idly at a scab, she went back to studying the model. Rage and despair warred behind her eyes.

The world was supposed to be hers. Instead, she was dressed in cast offs and begging for scraps with dunces who couldn't even speak properly. She knew Shivetya wanted her to teach the squabbling wizards how to talk. Despair rolled through her. Life wasn't worth living but her heart kept beating.

Nicci paced in front of the stairs to the bowels of the fortress. Her black dress snapped smartly at each turn. The crow had prevented her from finishing off Darken Rahl while he was unconscious. She was puzzling over Darken's belief that the demon had brought them there. Nicci still bore a grudge about being force-marched into the middle of nowhere.

She was the most powerful sorceress in the New or Old World and the demon could swat her down like a gnat. It could do whatever it wanted and she had to admit that Darken Rahl had not been very much like himself during the journey. Or maybe he'd been like himself only more so. Now he had power despite being in a body that shouldn't have any power. _That wasn't the way it worked._

Shrugging and turning down the stairs, Nicci went back down to the ice caves. She tried to count the number of steps but lost track after seventy. Once down there Nicci quickly grew bored with the bodies encased in webs of ice and followed the chamber around to another flight of stairs. There she caught a whiff of something that reminded her of the Keeper. A slight hint of something gone off and something burnt.

Calves aching, Nicci paused for a breather on a landing. Three figures appeared in front of her. They were uglier than anything she had ever seen in the Underworld. They were bestial, ephemeral, and utterly alien. They studied Nicci with an intensity that would have unnerved her before she had sworn herself to the Keeper.

Nicci waited for a handful of heartbeats for them to do something. They simply floated in front of her until she continued down the stairs. Then they floated behind her, studying her like an animal in a menagerie.

The next landing had a doorway. Inside lay more treasure than ten horses could carry off. Gold, silver, gems, pearls, bronze, jade, tin, and every other precious material Nicci could imagine covered shelves. Boxes, jewelry, coins, weapons, and all other manner of decoration glittered in her witch light. The thing that drew her attention was a dark cylinder a hand and a half long and two thumb widths wide located near the doorway where the shelves were bare. When she picked it up she noticed that it was unusually heavy for an object of its size and there was a vibration to it that hummed along her bones.

Darken had a pounding headache when he woke up. It didn't help that the first thing he saw was an albino crow sitting on his chest. He grunted as he sat up and remembered what had happened. After taking a deep breath, he called on his magic again and relaxed as he created a witch light. The ball of flame floated in the air and he smiled his first real smile in a long time.

"We need to talk," the crow croaked.

He looked up and met the demon's baleful yellow gaze. Slowly he nodded. He could not and would not trust the being but so far, it was living up to its end of the bargain.

The demon didn't speak in words. Images and sensations flickered through Darken's mind. Shivetya, the demon, could only communicate limited amounts through the crow. The vast body of knowledge that Darken felt rolling through their connection was so far beyond words that he felt like he had the first time he had entered the Keeper's service. There was a nauseating sense that everything was in motion around him and that the power he was in contact with was the only safe footing.

Eventually, Shivetya released Darken Rahl and he stood, staggering. Shivetya hadn't been able to give him direct means of communicating with Daughter of Night but Darken felt like he understood the situation more clearly. "There is no Creator," he whispered. "Mother of Deceivers." His head was full to bursting with new information.

There was only one person to share it with.

Nicci came back to find Darken Rahl and the girl seated by a fire, waiting for her. Darken's hair was darker and movements were more certain than she had seen recently. She realized he looked the way his shade had appeared to her. Darken and the girl looked faintly luminous. Nicci's loins tightened uncomfortably as she looked at the girl. Even barefoot and wearing an old shift, Mord'Sith gloves, and the remains of a horse blanket the girl was unnaturally lovely. The two sets of blue eyes that turned Nicci's way were more disturbing than the spooks. "Is there anything left for dinner?" she demanded sharply.

"Mushrooms," Darken answered cheerfully.

"Mushrooms," Nicci repeated disapprovingly.

The former lord of all D'Hara, previous foremost servant to the Keeper, and newly restored wizard giggled." It's quite good." He ignored the eyebrow Nicci arched at him. "Shivetya made them. They popped out all over him."

"That's disgusting," Nicci said, setting off another round of giggles from her two companions. "Who is Shivetya?"

The girl gabbled a something that started with Shivetya while Darken Rahl pointed at the vast demon. "We have much to discuss," Darken said.

Nicci sighed with a disgruntled expression. "What is there to discuss?" she asked as she sat. "I'm done being your hostage."

"No hostage talk. Not unless you're very naughty." Darken swallowed the giggle. "Talk about where we're going. Shivetya said you found the key." Darken spoke as he cut up another mushroom and put it in the pot. "Assuming that demon isn't lying, I've discovered some interesting things about our mythology. For instance, there's this being called Kina." He ignored the girl's electrified reaction. "She's a sort of goddess. She was the Keeper." He giggled.

Nicci sighed. "The Keeper was male."

"Kina was known as the Mother of Deceivers. Shivetya says he blew her up." Darken shrugged. "He could be lying but how are we going to double check unless we do what he says."

"And what does he say?" Nicci asked irritably.

"We take the key and go through the gate. Not back home but to a new place," Darken served up a bowl of water and mushrooms to Nicci.

The first bite tasted a little spicy and a little sweet. It wasn't something she'd want a lot of but it was pretty good. The third bite relaxed her. "Alright. We'll go. Are we going to bring some of this along?"

"Nothing else to eat." Darken shrugged again. "He says you met the Nef. They take care of the plain."

"Ugly ghosts," Nicci giggled.

"That's them." Darken nodded. "They're memory ghosts of the architects. Oh, out here we need to not use our real names. Names are power. Name a wizard and he loses his power. Or hers. While the situation may change, I think we're both better off not eliminating each other. I'm going to take Daughter of Night, Atia, where Shivetya wants her to go. He won't take kindly if you interfere. Then go wherever you want. Go back to D'Hara. I don't care."

Nicci took another bite, savoring her food as she contemplated Darken's words.

Darken had dozens of rationalizations sloshing around in his brain. He knew this was a bad idea. Possibly as bad as when he'd made his deal with- Kina. Darken shivered in the cold ambient light of the ice cavern. He made his way to the body of a beautiful blue-eyed woman with raven hair. The stitches on her neck stood out obscenely against her pale, flawless skin.

Her eyes met Darken's and he began the spell to release her.


End file.
